In this post we put forth our understanding of scientific culture, and how it can be defined as the balance between an individual and a group.
First, define tribalism:
Tribal behavior refers to deeply ingrained human instincts that prioritize loyalty to one's social group over out-groups, often shaping perceptions, morality, and decision-making.
Now we define the two types of violence, internal and external, that an individual may experience from a group. In less violent groups, violence may be internal, which comes in the form of bullying, harassment, ostracization, and gaslighting, and in more violent societies, external, in the form of physical assault.
Now we observe an aspect of science. In the scientific process, a research paper by one individual can change the course of the field because it has to be understood by the whole scientific community. In other words, it doesn't matter if the research paper goes against the widespread understanding in the community. The balance between an individual scientist, S, and the scientific community, G, is such that the community doesn't behave in a tribal way and persecute S for going against the conventional understanding. The balance between S and G is such that:
- S can exist in harmony with G.
- S is not subjected to internal or external violence for their beliefs.
- G attempts to understand S's ideas.
Similarly, a culture is scientific if an individual who has ideas that go against conventional understanding is not persecuted for their beliefs, if the beliefs are not prohibited by law, and are not intentionally harmful to G. Overall, a scientific culture eschews tribalism by definition and is close to how the ideal scientific community operates.